Sichuan, China 2008
A 7.9 Magnitude earthquake the strongest to hit China since 1950
Aiden Studdard
What happened?
On May 12th 2008 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked the Sichuan province of China and left a staggering number of people affected from not the most destructive but had a huge impact on human life with 87,150 people confirmed killed and many more missing after the disaster
Infrastructure
Poor Infrastructure in the Sichuan area caused mass loss of life as buildings constructed from mud-bricks and even steel reinforced buildings near the fault collapsed or where damaged.
Road structures and schools were also destroyed and led to thousands killed as their construction was not earthquake proof.
For the first time in history China requested international assistance to deal with the damage caused by the quake and the recovery efforts needed to find survivors, treat the injured and rebuild damaged infrastructure.
This earthquake had the highest homeless count in history with at least 4,800,000 people requiring shelter due to their houses being destroyed, with some estimates being as high as 10 million people needing shelter after the quake. More than 1.5 million houses were destroyed. This is more than the number of houses that are in the entire country of Australia....